Trump Wins Again, on Trade/ Why Calif. Gasoline Prices Spike

Washington and Beijing have agreed to abandon any trade war and back off from imposing tariffs on each other, Chinese state media reported Sunday.

The announcement came after high-level talks in the US capital and followed months of tensions over what President Donald Trump has blasted as an unfair commercial relationship between the two economic giants.

Vice-Premier Liu He, who led Chinese negotiators in Washington said: “The two sides reached a consensus, will not fight a trade war, and will stop increasing tariffs on each other,” state-run news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.

Liu called the agreement a “necessity”, but added: “At the same time it must be realised that unfreezing the ice cannot be done in a day, solving the structural problems of the economic and trade relations between the two countries will take time.”

An earlier joint statement issued in Washington said Beijing would “significantly” increase its purchases of American goods, but offered few details.

So there you go. The “master negotiator” Donald Trump wins again. Notice that last sentence – ‘Beijing would “significantly” increase its purchases of American goods’.

Great. That is exactly what we want. Trump has succeeded again just by being tough. This is what leadership is all about.

Donald Trump has been talking about Chinese trade imbalances for years. In a 2011 interview on the Rush Limbaugh radio program, Trump talked about the subject at length. Nikitas3.com was totally impressed with Trump’s forthrightness and grasp of the issues, and the very next day predicted in a commentary on January 18, 2011 that ‘Trump Will be Next US President’.

President Trump just keeps hitting home runs. When he first threatened tariffs on Chinese exports to the US, the liberals claimed that he was going to destroy our delicate trading relationship and start a “trade war”. AFP reported about the agreement that has ensued:

The apparent detente comes after months of increasing tensions that have set markets on edge over fears of a damaging trade war.

Trump has repeatedly railed against his country’s trade deficit with China, describing it as a danger to US national security and threatening to impose tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods.

US levies on $50 billion of Chinese imports could have come into effect as early as next week.

The talks in Washington were between delegations led by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Liu, who also met Thursday with Trump. The sides had met earlier in Beijing.

“There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China,” the joint statement said.

“To meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services.”

Good. In other words, Trump used his negotiating skills to get America a better deal. No other president could have done it the way Trump did. He boldly threatened the Chinese with tariffs on their products coming to the US. This has never happened before since we all fear trade wars that could slow down international commerce and harm us all.

And so China relented realizing that Trump indeed has the power to harm trade between the two nations, something that China does not want since the US is China’s biggest market.

The annual economic production of the United States (GDP) is $21 trillion. The estimated GDP of China is $10 trillion to $12 trillion, although those figures are not necessarily seen as trustworthy. Germany is $5.5 trillion while Russia is $1.3 trillion and the state of California alone is $2.6 trillion. So you can see why China is very much interested in maintaining a good economic relationship with the United States.

Until Trump, China did whatever it wanted and got away with a huge trade surplus. No more. AFP reports:

Last year, the United States had a $375.2 billion trade deficit with China, with populist politicians blaming the Asian powerhouse for the leeching of American jobs over the last few decades.

Washington reportedly had demanded the deficit be slashed by at least $200 billion by 2020.

However, the joint statement held no indication that China had assented to that target.

It said both sides had agreed on “meaningful increases” in US agriculture and energy exports. Liu said the new trade cooperation would extend to medical care, high-tech products, and finance, according to Xinhua.

They also agreed to strengthen cooperation on protecting intellectual property — a long-standing source of US discontent.

The two countries, their economies enormously interlinked, opened the delicate negotiations a few weeks ago.

Trump had threatened China with tariffs on up to $150 billion of imports, prompting Beijing to warn it would target US agricultural exports, aircraft, and even whiskey.

Notice that China threatened to put tariffs on agricultural products. Do you know why?

It was to threaten Trump voters in Middle American farm states, that’s why. This frightened many Americans, but not Trump. He stood firm and got his way.

When Obama was talking about Trump economic policies during the 2016 campaign he wondered if Trump was going to wave a “magic wand” and bring jobs and prosperity back.

But no, president Trump has applied sound economic principles and backed them up with his force of personality. Over the next 7 years, until Trump leaves office in January 2025, Nikitas3.com believes that he is going to totally re-shape the American economy for the good of the American people.

As US factories closed and relocated overseas over the last 40 years we saw the loss of millions of great American jobs. Manufacturing employment in the US peaked at 19 million jobs in 1979. It is now 12 million in a much larger population.

This is why the middle class has been shrinking. President Trump wants to reverse that trend, and he can. But it is going to take time, patience and strong leadership.
AFP reports:

On Thursday, (Trump) unleashed a barrage of criticism against former US administrations, saying they had allowed Beijing to take advantage of the United States.

“We have been ripped off by China. And an evacuation of wealth like no country has ever seen before given to another country that’s rebuilt itself based on a lot of the money that they’ve taken out of the United States,” he said.

So what other US president would say in such a brazen fashion that “we have been ripped off by China”?

Answer: None. Trump has the courage to speak the truth and China knows it. That is how he gets things done. And you can bet that even the communists in China know that they are dealing with a man of great force.

AFP reports:

If the US and China face further difficulties in the future, Liu said: “We must look at them calmly, maintain dialogue and properly handle them.”

Sure thing. President Trump scared the heck out of them with his threat of tariffs. They are not going to mess with Trump.

‘Bolshevik’ Bernie Sanders Can’t Explain the Sad Reality of Vermont

Here is an excerpt from Breitbart News:

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said school shootings happen because President Donald Trump and the Republicans “don’t have the guts to stand up” to the National Rifle Association.

When asked if the Senate has done enough on gun control, Sanders shouted, “Of course not! Of course not, but it’s like every other issue. The American people are united overwhelmingly, gun owners, non-gun owners, gun safety, gun legislation, expand background checks, do away with the loophole… ”

He continued, “It’s a three-letter word. It’s the NRA, and it’s Trump and the Republicans who don’t have the guts to stand up to these people, and that’s pretty pathetic.”

While ‘Bolshevik’ Bernie is on a rampage about guns, he unfortunately can never explain why younger, skilled and educated people have been fleeing his withering socialist paradise in Vermont by the tens of thousands and running to states with looser gun laws – and strong economies – like Texas and other Southern states.

Liberals also can never explain why illegal immigrants continue to pour into the US when America is the only nation with a 2nd Amendment, which Democrats claim threatens life and limb.

Shouldn’t these illegals be rushing to nations with strict gun control laws like North Korea or Cuba or China?

California Gasoline Prices Spiking

The average price of gasoline nationwide in the US has risen to $3 a gallon. We might think of this as high, but gasoline is still very cheap. It is now $8 a gallon in the Canadian province of British Columbia under its ‘green’ policies.

US gasoline went to almost $4 a gallon under Obama, and that was five years ago. If we had kept Obama’s ‘green’ policies Nikitas3.com estimates that gasoline would be $6 a gallon today.

Gasoline was $1 a gallon in 1980. So over almost 40 years, it has only tripled in the US. That is an extremely low rate of increase for which we can thank the efficient oil companies and technologies like ‘fracking’, which the ‘greenies’ oppose.

In comparison some college costs today are 13 times what they were in 1980. And those colleges are full of left-wing professors who claim that the oil companies are stealing from us.

Meanwhile The Daily Caller reported in an article by Chris White called Here’s Why Californians Pay Way More For Gasoline Than Everyone Else:

The price of a gallon of gas costs dramatically more in California than in the rest of the country for a variety of reasons, but government meddling, rising house costs and steep taxes are playing a significant role.

Republicans are threatening to turn a recently passed gas tax increase into a millstone to wrap around the necks of vulnerable Democrats. Years of tax increases, pricey fees and a lack of infrastructure in California could provide the pressure required to give those threats some legitimacy.

Former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of California has experience with such recriminations. He was recalled in 2003 for mishandling the state’s budget and increasing California’s car registration fees — it was only the second such recall election in U.S. history. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger ultimately won the election November of that same year.

A similar situation is unfolding in 2018. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed a law in 2017 imposing a 12 cents a gallon increase on citizens and raising the tax on diesel fuel by 20 cents a gallon. It also implements an additional charge to annual vehicle license fees ranging from $25 to $175 depending on the car’s value

Brown sold the bill as a way to fix the state’s roads, but reports show the bulk of the money has not gone to (road) upkeep. California’s Transportation Agency announced in April grants to recipients for some $2.6 billion of the transit funding raised through the law. The awards include $28.6 million for 40 electric buses and $40.5 million for light-rail vehicles in Sacramento. Nearly 28 projects were awarded cash from the gas tax increase. None of them involves road upkeep.

OK, so that’s California in a nutshell. Tax, tax, tax… Then remember that California is controlled with an iron grip by the Democrat party. Every statewide office is held by a Democrat. So the taxing is no surprise. That is why a Republican named John Cox could win the governorship this November on the issue of repealing the gasoline tax. Californians are fed up.

Then look at where $69 million in gasoline taxes go – for electric buses and for “light-rail vehicles”, which are trolleys that run on electric power. We are supposed to think that these vehicles are good for the environment but they are not. An electric bus or trolley uses 2 to 4 times as much energy per mile as a diesel or natural gas bus since electricity is a “refined” resource. And it is a fact of physics that “it consumes energy to refine energy”.

Look at this ‘green’ disaster from The Daily Caller if you want to understand how crazy California environmentalism has become:

California’s strict environmental rules mandate that gasoline sold within the state be produced according to strict formulas designed to reduce pollution. Unfortunately for citizens, the exotic formula makes a gallon of gas more expensive and difficult to produce. Few refineries outside the state are equipped to produce it.

Worse yet, the gasoline formula changes multiple times a year, switching from a winter recipe to a summer blend designed to slow down evaporation. The summer blend is even more expensive and trickier to make, thereby elevating the risk of refinery mishaps. Refiners also use up inventories of either blend before the switch, increasing the risk of price volatility.

So we’ve got the refiners running around in a frenzy making this type of gasoline and that type according to the season. This is how regulation (and socialism) destroys economies, by confusing people with more and more laws.

The Daily Caller reports:

Interstate pipelines could funnel gasoline quickly and cheaply to California, but no such pipelines exist connecting West Coast refineries to the Golden State. The state must therefore get the bulk of its fuel from ship or truck.

Only when pump prices are soaring inside California is it worth it to pay those transportation costs for refiners capable of producing California’s gasoline formula. The state’s refineries also tend to keep inventories tighter than the national average, federal energy statistics show.

Why are there no pipelines? Because the ‘greenies’ and their government friends are blocking pipelines all over America, making it more expensive or impossible to get oil or gasoline to market. This also pushes up prices.

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